Antarctica is often considered an extreme environment for living organisms due to cold, windy, dry, and seasonally-fluctuating light conditions. The Southern Ocean surrounds the Antarctic continent, where water temperatures remain low (2  to +5 ) even in summer, and sea-ice extends over the large areas in winter. Despite these 'harsh' conditions, marine ecosystems flourish in the Southern Ocean with the rich fauna of cold-adapted species. Adélie penguins distribute across the Antarctic coastal regions and are considered bio-indicators of 'ecosystem health'. Their populations have decreased around the Antarctic Peninsula region but contrastingly increased in the East Antarctic region, and the effects of climate change have been debated. To fully address how changing climate affects Adélie penguins, we need better to understand their survival strategies in the Southern Ocean. Here I review the recent findings on how Adélie penguins utilize the Antarctic environment in summer and winter, based on research using animal-attached bio-logging instruments. These findings include 1) strong effects of inter-annual changes in summer sea-ice conditions on penguin foraging and breeding performance in summer, and 2) the effects of seasonally-fluctuating physical environments on penguin migration in winter. These findings highlight how Adélie penguins adapt to annually- and seasonally- fluctuating Antarctic environments.

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Polar regions are often characterized as the coldest, driest, and/or windiest habitats for life on Earth. Even under such extreme conditions, however, microorganisms exhibit remarkable phylogenetic and functional diversity. Our group has studied the microbiomes of Antarctic lake environments. Algae and cyanobacteria often develop luxuriant multi-layered mat consortia in lake bottoms. In association with such mats, aquatic mosses sometimes form unique tower-like structures called “moss pillars” in the freshwater lakes located near Syowa Station, East Antarctica. Moss pillars harbor a high diversity of microorganisms, including both bacteria and eukaryotes, but not archaea. Unexpectedly diverse eukaryotic phylotypes affiliated with algae, ciliates, fungi, nematodes, rotifers, and tardigrades, as well as unclassified phylotypes, have been detected in these pillars. This mini review provides an overview of Antarctic terrestrial ecosystems. Additionally, it presents a brief introduction to an emerging novel cyanobacterial species related to the primitive cyanobacterium Gloeobacter, an unexpected freshwater lineage of Labyrinthulomycetes (fungus-like protists), and uncultivated ultra-small bacteria. Exploration and mining of polar microorganisms would provide great insights into the diversity of life on this planet.

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The fermentation process is commonly employed for brewed beverages and foods e.g. amino acids, vitamins, enzymes, and antibiotics. The fundamental technology was, however, already established between the 1960s and 1970s and very few signs of progress have been made since then. The biggest reason is, such complex biological process requires precise and sensitive control which is even difficult for skilled engineers. In this paper, several experiments to evaluate the effectiveness of the bioproduction management system with artificial intelligence (AI) are described. A set of detailed-describable sensor data from cultivation batch integrates into convolutional data, which allows the AI to optimize bioproduction with appropriately formulated process control variables. The demonstration involves experimental microbial production with 5L culture tanks. The system achieved a certain degree of improvement in yield for productivity factors through prediction and control instruction by the convolutional data and the AI. We are confident with the result and the AI would become an innovator in emerging bioeconomy markets through inheriting tacit knowledge of experts and beyond them.

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